and returned it to the secret service. wouldn't that be cool to drive around your car with a seal on the side, don't you think? would you like that? yeah. i saw the logo fall next to me. nice job, team. thank you. i'm don le mon in the cnn headquarters in atlanta. thanks for watching. i will see you two women, worlds apart, united by one common mission -- to save women from sexual exploitation. the cnn freedom project presents "nepal's stolen children." >> last year i attended the cnn heroes awards. a gala event to honor people making a difference in the world.

i met a woman whose courage and selfless determination redefined words like bravery and dedication. >> since 1993, she has helped rescue more than 12,000 women and girls. her name is anuradha koirala. saving one person at a time, she has made it her life's mission to find freedom and redemption for thousands of women and girls forced into sex slavery. her organization is called maiti nepal, which means mothers home. >> the 2010 cnn hero of the year is anuradha koirala. >> in that moment i knew this would not be the last time our paths would cross. ♪

>> the snow-covered mountains of the himalayas are the first sight to greet most travelers arriving in nepal. its capital, kathmandu, is a busy hub for tourist traffic, climbers and trekkers drawn by the lure of everest. most who come use it a as gateway to adventure, but i'm here for a very different reason. sandwiched between china and india, nepal is also a magnet for another kind of human traffic. the tiny nation provides a steady supply of sex slaves for the brothels of delhi and mumbai. i arrived at maiti nepal to an overwhelming welcome. nepalese people are known for their warmth and hospitality and i was experiencing it firsthand. >> so wonderful to be here. >> thank you so much for coming.

>> it is really so beautiful. it seemed like such a happy, cheerful group of young women and girls, but their stories would tell a different tale. it was hard to imagine that every single woman in this room had suffered at the hands of sex traffickers, pimps or brothel owners. recovery can take years, and emotional scars can be harder to detect than physical ones and they definitely don't heal as easily. i wanted to come to learn what you're doing that's working so that i can find ways of helping share those best practices in my own country where this is also a problem. >> first she says that in the village a trafficker comes and said there is job in the city, i

will give you the job. and we believe. we women in nepal believe very quickly that is why this is happening. >> one of the things that we and my husband and i have been working on is addressing men, men's behavior, men's idea that it is acceptable to buy girls, and we feel that real men don't buy girls and that's something that has to begin. we have to re-educate our young boys. but i must say, this is a powerful, strong group of women and your voices are very encouraging to me. i noticed one young woman in the crowd who couldn't seem to muster the enthusiasm to join in. her sad look stuck with me. her name is patali. like so many young women, she had been trafficked across the border into india to work in a brothel. she was rescued six months ago, but in the chaos of the rescue

operation, police were unable to recover her 2-year-old daughter. children are routinely separated from their mothers to prevent disruption from their work, but also as leverage to discourage them from escaping. this is a big day though, because news has come that another raid on the brothel has led to the rescue of her daughter. she's expected at maiti nepal at any minute. patali is both relieved but sick with concern for her safety. tragically, after such a long time apart, the terrified little girl does not recognize her mother and pushes her away,

reaching out to her rescuer instead. as a mother of three girls myself, it was painful to watch and everyone in the room felt helpless. >> mommy, mommy, mommy. [ speaking foreign language ] >> and how old is he now? too often, it is children who are abused to ensure that their mothers comply with brothel owner's orders. the woman on my right is radika. by the time she was 12 she had been trafficked twice, had a kidney removed by illegal organ sellers and had an 18-month-old son. and he is now in school. yes. the brothel keeper's cruelty was effective.

when they were rescued and brought to maiti nepal, the boy was unable to talk. now 8 years old he's making progress but is still nervous and wary of strangers. >> translator: at the brothel i was forced to have sex with men and if i refused to do that, and if i argued with them, they would burn cigarettes on my body, and they would beat me with a stick or they would spill hot water on me. >> i know that when you were separated from your son, that some abuse happened to him. can you tell me about that? >> translator: when we were separated and when my son cried, they burned my son's tongue with a cigarette. >> in just an afternoon, i've heard stories of suffering that would be incomprehensible to most people. but sadly, they are far too familiar to many in nepal. in order to see how this can be allowed to happen, i needed to

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today i'm with anuradha at the kathmandu airport boarding a plane for india, or to be precise to, take me to the border that nepal shares with india. it is across that border that thousands of nepalese girls are trafficked each year from brothels of mumbai, calcutta, and other indian cities. this journey is difficult for anuradha. she's so fearless when facing human traffickers and yet has trouble facing up to her own fear of flying. as she puts it, on the ground i am a lion, but in the air, i am a mouse. back on solid ground, anuradha finds her feet once more and we're soon on our way to one of the 26 official border crossings

along the 2,500 kilometer frontier between the two countries. i'm not allowed to cross into india without a visa, but nepalese and indians are free to pass without showing passports or i.d. cards of any kind. i'm actually amazed though that they don't do some kind of card that had to be shown? for people who do work and have legitimate business going back, it is not to keep people from going back and forth, but there has to be some better system. in just four hours at the border, i saw several thousand people crossing over. anuradha introduces me to maiti nepal's own border guards. their slight appearance belies an intense determination which

is borne from their own experience. all of maiti nepal's guards were themselves trafficked into brothels. there were 50 guards working for maiti nepal across ten checkpoints. every day on the border they'll intercept on average 20 girls at risk of being trafficked. can you explain to me how it exactly works? >> she says every girl they watch and they watch the men also. they watch and as soon as they catch the suspect, they keep the one she takes a girl, or one she takes a boy. then questioning. after questioning if they are find that whatever they're saying is not true, then if it is a boy, they hand over the boy to the police station, then they take the girl involved to the transit home. >> how do they have an authority? like if they say see a rickshaw coming, they can just stop it or do they have to get the police to stop it?

>> "because of the uniform, everybody recognizes." >> okay. so then they'll just need to show me like how it works. >> she's asking for i.d. cards. >> it is a daunting task at such a busy border crossing, like looking for a needle in the haystack. the odds are stacked on the side of the traffickers. the guards know the suspicious signs which could identify potential traffickers but catching the criminals may mean questioning dozens of perfectly innocent travelers every day. >> this is my grandfather and the father is working in india. now i told her read this and the grandfather is saying, "i told

you not to eat anything it will give you so don't eat anything if anybody gives." >> offering young girls food or drink laced with drugs is a common ploy of the traffickers. when anuradha has any suspicions about travelers she is forthright in her questioning. >> he is such a liar. he says his wife is shopping. they're all going -- >> she's saying that this is her mother and this is her daughter. she has holiday to india to meet her father, but she told us lies. now i phoned her brother, and he said they're -- >> so everything is okay? >> yes. >> while in this instance there seemed to be nothing wrong, any inconsistencies in the stories raise the suspicions of maiti nepal.

the police act largely as onlookers during these encounters. they will respond when maiti nepal guards believe they've found a trafficker but simply don't have the resources themselves to actively look for offenders. >> my coordination with police and maiti nepal has always been very good. right from 1994, we've been working together with the police. 26 official borders but sometimes we had problem with the police, but then you cannot put all the police into one box. right? >> of course. >> he was thinking that it might be nice if you had documentation. >> so you know who's going in and out. >> she's meeting the prime minister day after tomorrow. >> what is it that we could ask that would help what you do? >> it is a total lack of manpower. we work with maiti nepal or

other agencies. >> main thing the inspector said is he needs manpower. >> yeah. just more people. >> just lack of manpower. >> okay. got it. >> maiti nepal estimates it's rescued more than 12,000 women in its 20-year history. ironically that's the same number of nepalese women and girls believed to be trafficked to india every year. while we were filming a group of four women recently rescued from brothels in india make it back across the border after a 40-hour journey. some of the girls ask not to be identified, terrified that the stigma of their ordeal would make them social outcasts at home. >> those girls have come back home, and they they're very happy to be home. >> happy, yes, but also traumatized. the youngest is 15. she was 12 when she trafficked and the brothel owners forced her to take hormones to develop her premature body into that of a woman. >> they will have warm food, water, and then travel back to nepal.

>> maiti nepal has a transit home near the border. where rescued girls can begin to recover from their ordeal before being transferred to the main rehabilitation center in kathmandu, and in some cases face their trafficker in court. >> every time, every week or every 15 years you have to go to the court with a girl. it takes 1 to 1 1/2 year for case to be finalized. during that period you have to keep the girls with us. during their stay with us they do some training for their life skill and that is how we enter them into society. >> but society isn't always ready to accept them back. >> she is frightened of the stigma. she's saying, please do not tell my husband that i was in maiti nepal in india or maiti nepal here. >> it is believed there may be

as many as 35,000 nepalese girls working mumbai's red light district alone. >> "two men took me and said they would teach me some job an give me job later on after training." >> she's been gone two years. how old is she? >> i don't know. i think i am 17, 16. what's that? [ speaking foreign language ] >> i have a son who is 7 years old with my in-laws, so i would like to go back to my in-laws, and she says, my in-laws will not take me if they know i come from working like this. i swear on my son, i will never do this kind of work again. but, please, don't say that i'm from there.

>> another pain inflicted by the traffickers' cruelty. a mother desperately wanting to see her son again but terrified that her family will turn her away when they find out what she's been through. being shunned by loved ones is not an uncommon reaction. but what tips the balance from acceptance to rejection. the answer for one trafficked girl recently rescued from a brothel lies in a remote mountain village six hours from kathmandu. with honey nut cheerios cereal. kissed with real honey. and the 100% natural whole grain oats can help lower your cholesterol. you are so sweet to me. bee happy. bee healthy. i've tried it.et to me. but nothing's helped me beat my back pain. then i tried this. it's salonpas. this is the relief i've been looking for. salonpas has 2 powerful pain fighting ingredients that work for up to 12 hours.

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dawn breaks over the himalayas. it is a beautiful start to the day in some of nepal's most remote villages. but beauty doesn't put food on the table, and some of the country's most breathtaking scenery is home to some of its poorest people. the average income in nepal is a little over $200 a year. that's 57 cents a day. in the remote areas, it's often far less. poverty is the means by which traffickers trap their prey, luring them away from their neighborhoods with the promise of work in the big city. it's to such a village that we're heading today. maiti nepal wakes up as usual to the sound of sweeping. prayers are offered, and

breakfast is taken, and in the corner of one of the communal bedrooms, a young woman is packing her bag. today, tuli is going home. it's a six-hour drive into the mountains to reach tuli's village, and as our vehicle struggles up the dusty road, there's plenty of time for me to hear her story. so how is it that she ended up being trafficked? what was the situation? >> as usual, she had come for shopping in the city for her brother, and then she never returned home. so first they thought that she was in the relative's house an they looked into the relative's house and they could not find her. then afterwards they knew that she had gone disappeared somewhere, so they didn't tell anybody. they just waited for some time, and later on then they found out that she was trafficked when

they got the message. >> after six months in a brothel in calcutta, tuli took a risk and asked one of her clients to help her. he agreed to phone her brother and with maiti nepal's assistance he traveled to india to help her escape. is she worried about how she's going to be treated? [ speaking foreign language ] >> the family will treat me very nicely, i know that, but i do not know about the community. >> i'm hearing that, tuli, this is your favorite tea place. [ speaking foreign language ] >> yes. >> so you have to come and show us. tuli wants to stop at a favorite eating place half-way through the journey. the town has some fond memories for her but it is also the place where she met her trafficker. why is this area particularly

bad for the trafficking? >> this is where the buses go to kathmandu. so they all stop here for food and all that. and here is where they give them food filled with drugs, then make them go to sleep, then they get up in kathmandu. then from there they take them again to certain areas. >> are these possibly girls that are just on the bus? >> not everybody. the one trafficker has brought up to here. >> it is a sinister cycle and a well planned trap. naive young girls are duped, drugged, and then taken away to the city. so why is this area where her village is, you said it is one of the highest risks for trafficking. >> it is not only from now. it's been since 1926 has been in high risk area and the people who live in this area are a certain group of ethnic people

called the tamaans. tamaans are very, very naive. they believe on everybody and they trust everybody, and they are lured in the form of employment. >> it's been a long and bumpy ride, but finally we arrive at tuli's village. at 3,500 meters above sea level, it is breathtaking in every sense of the word. a cluster of metal roof shacks clinging to the mountainside. but before we reach her home, there is a little matter of 500 steps to negotiate down the hillside. waiting to see tuli is a small girl. this is tuli's daughter, and she hasn't seen her mother in six months.

although emotions are running high, tuli's reunion with her parents maintains the traditional respectful formality of her culture. it's almost when she is with her daughter that she can no longer hold back the tears. three generations of tuli's family, finally back together again. but these first moments are clearly difficult and uncomfortable. [ speaking foreign language ] >> thank you very much for bringing my sister. you all had to take a lot of trouble to coming down all the way. >> tuli, how do you feel to be home? [ speaking foreign language ] >> i feel very happy. it is important to give survivors like tuli a voice, and my thoughts are on a meeting i have planned with a convicted trafficker.

i am wanting to share messages, and if there's something that you would like me to say on behalf of you and other girls, i would like to hear so that i can pass that on. [ speaking foreign language ] >> my sister have taken lots of pain, and nobody should be left like that. everybody should be punished. they should be life in prison, like everybody. >> tuli is one of the lucky ones rescued and now at home with her family. anuradha's crusade is to protect the thousands of other girls who fall prey to the traffickers every year. and her work never ends. on our way back we stop at another village. >> we stick posters like this on the wall, on every houses, to give the messages.

[ speaking foreign language ] >> a critical part of maiti nepal's work is creating awareness of sex trafficking in the more remote regions of the country. ♪ >> villagers are entertained with songs, dances and speeches, all designed to educate them of the very real danger that's all around them. >> we continue on our journey, another six hours winding through the mountains.

the sun sets long before we reach kathmandu, leaving behind a region blessed by natural beauty, but cursed by poverty, a curse from which the traffickers seek to profit. level to help your engine run more smoothly by helping remove deposits and cleaning up intake valves. so when you fill up at an exxon or mobil station, you can rest assured we help your engine run more smoothly while leaving behind cleaner emissions. it's how we make gasoline work harder for you. exxon and mobil. really? 25 grams of protein. what do we have? all four of us, together? 24. he's low fat, too, and has 5 grams of sugars. i'll believe it when i--- [ both ] oooooh... what's shakin'? [ female announcer ] as you get older, protein is an important part of staying active and strong.

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♪ it was wonderful and amazing to sit in a room with so many survivors, and yet at the same time, extremely painful. the power of their voices that outsiders don't often really get a chance to hear because we need to hear their stories, we need to know that they're not just a statistic. i think the incredible beauty was in seeing what anuradha, who herself is a survivor of domestic abuse, the power of a

survivor-led organization and what i found is that those seem to be the most effective. anuradha founded maiti nepal in 1993 with her $100 a month teaching salary. from humble beginnings, it has grown into a nationwide non-profit organization housing and protecting up to 100 women every day at its main complex in kathmandu. the center provides counseling, training and legal assistance to help prosecute cases against traffickers. and there is a school for about 300 children from newborn babies to teenagers. some of whom were trafficked along with their mothers, and others who were rescued from the streets before they could fall into the hands of traffickers.

♪ 12 kilometers north of kathmandu lies a different aspect of the care provided by maiti nepal's team -- the hospice. the scars of human trafficking are never merely skin deep and the pain and suffering often extends to future generations. amid the seemingly idyllic image of rural family life, there's another morning routine to be performed, one which casts a darker complexion on the picture. this is the daily lineup for medicine without which many of these women and children would die. they all carry the hiv virus and many have other related illnesses. in most cases, a legacy of time served under slavery in the brothel. the medicine is expensive and maiti nepal struggles to maintain a supply of life saving drugs.

it was here at the hospice i met gita and heard her story. >> she is gita. and gita has been with us for last several years and she was rescued from india from delhi with her son. she was trafficked with her son. >> gita's story is a familiar tale of trust and betrayal, an orphan lured to india by the false hope of finding her parents, but instead finding herself in a life of hell. >> so she's 12 years old. she's been married off at 10. abused. she's had a baby. and now she's being forced into prostitution, and so how long was she enslaved in the brothels before she was rescued? >> for two years she was in the brothel, and then she was again rescued as a minor. >> gita is living with hiv

following her time in brothels where condoms were not allowed. fortunately the virus was not passed on to her son but the heartbreaking consequence means the two live largely separate lives, with gita at the medical center and her son at maiti nepal's main home. as a mother, i look at you and hear your story and i just -- it's just almost impossible to comprehend. do you feel hopeful? do you feel that your life has still possibilities? [ speaking foreign language ] >> "anyway, i am very hopeful because i have my son for him i have to live so i try my best to live for him." >> do you miss seeing him? [ speaking foreign language ]

what did she say? >> she says, "well -- i am very -- even if he's not with me, the child is with you, so i feel he's in the safe hands, so it is all depends on how you keep him. >> with her time, what is it that would be her dream? >> she says, "what can a person with multiple disease like me do? sometimes i think that i'm just hopeless, but at times again i think maiti nepal is teaching me

craft and i think i can survive with this craft also." "i have so many things to say it's all in my heart and i am very happy to share it. and thank you for coming all the way and taking my story and sharing with everybody." >> thank you. can i have a hug? i promise to do a really good job of sharing this so that we can end this so that it doesn't have to keep happening to other girls. >> one can't fathom the pain and suffering these women have endured until you hear their stories firsthand. really, how can this be allowed to go on?

i was due to meet someone who might be able to answer that question -- the prime minister of nepal. hey, the new guy is loaded with protein!

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♪ after four days working with anuradha and her team at maiti nepal, i have lots of questions. today i'll be putting them to two people able to give us unique insights into the issue of sex trafficking in nepal. the first is one of the most powerful people in the country, nepal's prime minister. the second, a convicted sex trafficker sentenced to 12 years in prison. but even before we can reach the prime minister's office, our scheduled jailhouse interview hits trouble. we hear that official permission has suddenly been withdrawn. it's something i plan to raise with the prime minister, but first i want to know why he thinks his country has become such a haven for human trafficking.

thank you, mr. prime minister, for sitting down and speaking with me. clearly this is an issue that requires the support of the private sector, but also we can't do it alone, we really need the support of the government and my process of trying to educate myself on what's happening in nepal, i was interested to know your position and knowledge of what's happening here with trafficking. >> actually since a long time in our society there is patriarchal domination. that is one of the causes that women are in the unprivileged position right now. and there is dire poverty, also about 30% of our population is under dire poverty. >> when i was at the border i spent a moment speaking with a police inspector and i found that he actually knew quite little about the issue of trafficking, and more

importantly, he seemed overwhelmed at having very little resources or manpower in identifying the traffickers, especially with it being such an open border. >> that is one of the big problems, how to manage it and at the same time in the border area, we have to double up or more modern type of checkpoints. >> yes. >> so that everybody could be screened at the border point. >> education is not mandatory in nepal and because there is clearly a gender discrimination, that if a family, poor, has two boys and three girls and limited funds, they will send the boys to school and leaving the girls in a very vulnerable position and i think that if education became mandatory, it could also reduce the risk. >> thank you for raising this very important question. at this time it's the time for new budget also and in this

budget discussion i have already directed the finance minister to think about it because we there is no compulsory education in nepal. and let us try to develop it at least up to eighth grade a compulsory education so that everybody should have to be educated. at the same time there should not be any kind of discrimination between men or woman particularly the girls. the girls should be given more concession. >> we have a trafficker that was willing to speak with us but we were having difficulty in having access. you could help us to have the permission to actually go and interview him. >> yes. i will do it.

>> armed with the prime minister's support, we head to the prison for our interview with the trafficker. the man, convicted in 2001, of trafficking more than 100 women, is now approaching his release date. he has educated himself in prison, studied for two degrees and become a teacher. he now expresses remorse and says he wants to help maiti nepal combat future trafficking. when we arrive at kathmandu's central jail, things don't go according to plan. we are escorted to a meeting with the prison's most senior official known here as the jailer. we're forbidden from bringing our cameras but are allowed to record our discussion.

>> it's unfortunate that now we will have to share that we have been shut down. i'm so disappointed because it was the opportunity to, i think, add a level of texture, education, and i think he would have provided us with so many great insights into how to combat this issue from a trafficker's point of view who has completely rehabilitated. so i think it is a great loss, not only for us but i think for this country. the day's events have taken their toll on anuradha. >> she's going to get her blood pressure taken so we'll walk her to the car.

>> we'll continue to try to get access to the trafficker but time is running out as i have less than 24 hours left in nepal. with honey nut cheerios cereal. kissed with real honey. and the 100% natural whole grain oats can help lower your cholesterol. you are so sweet to me. bee happy. bee healthy. really? 25 grams of protein. what do we have? all four of us, together? 24. he's low fat, too, and has 5 grams of sugars. i'll believe it when i--- [ both ] oooooh... what's shakin'? [ female announcer ] as you get older, protein is an important part of staying active and strong. new ensure high protein... fifty percent of your daily value of protein. low fat and five grams of sugars. see? he's a good egg. [ major nutrition ] new ensure high protein. ensure! nutrition in charge! [ pneumatic wrench buzzing ] [ slap! slap! slap! ] [ male announcer ] your favorite foods fighting you? fight back fast with tums. calcium rich tums goes to work in seconds.

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it's my final day in nepal and the rescued girls we met at the border have arrived in kathmandu to join anuradha's extended family here and begin their rehabilitation. it's time for them to say an emotional good-bye to another remarkable woman who's been with them since their rescue. >> no, no, no. >> travini runs the rescue foundation which is one of the few indian organizations rescuing women trafficked into forced prosecution. every year her team frees 300 to 400 women from the brothels of india returning them to maiti nepal. 60% of the girls they rescue are under 16. she and her team risk daily violence, threats and reprisals from the pimps and brothel owners whose lucrative businesses she disrupts.

during my stay here, i have heard some of those real stories. >> translator: before i came to maiti nepal i had given up hope i would ever be able to do something for myself, for my life. but now i know i have that courage, i can do something for myself and i can take care of my child. now i'm working here as a gardener and my son goes to the school. >> there are signs of hope. one of the most painful moments of the week happened within hours of my arrival at maiti nepal when a young mother was reunited with her daughter six months after she escaped from the brothel. at that first meeting the terrified little girl didn't even recognize her mother. happily, by the end of my visit, things had changed and i was able to see mother and daughter beginning to bond once more.

♪ >> and there was a surprise for gita. invited to travel from the hospice to watch a musical performance by the children at the maiti nepal center. she sees her son in the spotlight dancing on stage and has the opportunity to tell him of her pride. at the same time in india, maiti nepal was continuing its work, coordinating a raid on a brothel in the city. a stream of cowering men flee and a female officer dishes out her own judicial retribution. trevini and members of the rescue foundation were joined by indian police in the rescue operation. as they picked their way through the hallways, the slaps continued to ring out. even though brothels are illegal in india, for most of these men,

it is the only punishment they will receive. a nepalese man has traveled for days to be here just for the chance to rescue his sister. after their embrace and tearful reunion, the girl is able to call her parents and tell them she's safe. the more opportunity i have to meet the women face to face and hear their stories, it just continues to deepen my commitment and i look at you and just how tirelessly you work, your dedication, and the effort that it takes really to really fight this, and i sometimes feel like, i'm just -- i'm just doing so small. >> you had heard. now you've seen it with your eyes. when you see that pain, that keeps you going. it is not that, you know, i'm energetic while i'm doing it, but the fuel is the children who give me their sorrows, their pain they go through. that keeps me going.

>> i think on one hand you can feel it as a mother, and i think that you can also feel it just as a woman. you feel that pain that you never want to see a young girl taken advantage of. and these girls here are so innocent. they really, really do have such a sweet innocence. >> they've gone through so much pain and still they have the hope. so we have seen such a lot of pain. we still have to live in the hope that one day they will end it, one day we will end it. >> and i believe we can. a week after i left nepal i continued the fight against human trafficking with my husband, we launched the dna foundation's real men don't buy girls campaign. our goal is to address the cause by reducing the global demand and changing the cultural acceptance of buying girls for sex. human trafficking is more similar in the u.s. and nepal than you might think.

♪ though my time in nepal was brief, my experiences there only strengthened my resolve. the young women and girls i met have left a lasting imprint. one by one they battled unspeakable cruelty alone, but now surrounded by other survivors in the safe haven they call mother's home, you can feel the renewed hope these girls have for their future. but anuradha and maiti nepal can't save every child on their own. anuradha once said, just imagine if that was your daughter standing there, what would you do? do? how would you fight?